For archiving purposes. This review was originally posted on The Gaming Vault on April 09, 2013 and written by Nick Fassbinder.
In a nutshell, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is worth your money.
It takes all of the previous games’ tight mechanics and improves upon them while adding new features that make for an even richer experience. Though the game definitely comes with annoyances and frustrations, it also comes with much more exciting and engaging gameplay than the vast majority of titles today. Few games offer the amount of quality and quantity that the latest iteration does, even in a handheld format.
For those unfamiliar with Capcom’s Monster Hunter series, the game is essentially about going on quests to fight large boss-like monsters and collect materials from them to make new weapons and armors to take on even larger and tougher creatures. There are no levels and all of the players’ stats are based on their equipment. Though the game does have characters and plenty of dialogue, there is hardly an attempt at a narrative being made with most of the “story” essentially serving as a tutorial, introducing the player to the basic mechanics of the gameplay. While the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate does teach the player most of the essentials, there are certainly some elements that you will just have to figure out for yourself as you hunt stronger creatures, making for a significant learning curve, and will most likely take a new hunter more than a few hours to get a handle on how the game really plays.
Once the player does get a handle on the system, the game becomes enormous fun, especially when you take into account the large variety of monsters, each requiring a different approach. For example, fighting a Diablos is a very different endeavor than fighting a Rathalos, each providing you an instance to exercise not only your character’s skills, but your mind.
The monsters are also fairly balanced, with a few exceptions providing a real challenge without being too overwhelming. You fight these monsters with one of the 14 weapon types in the game, and this is where the depth of the game becomes apparent. Each weapon type requires totally different and distinct play styles, offering largely different mechanics depending on which one you take from your personal armory. Because of this, the game can still feel fresh after a hundred hours of play, especially if you decide to switch to a new-to-you weapon type. Combined with the sheer variety of monsters to fight and equipment to craft, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate can easily be played for hundreds of hours.
Multiplayer is also a crucial component to the Monster Hunter series, and Ultimate is no exception. There is a single player that offers most of the same monsters as the multiplayer, and it is a good experience in itself, but friends make everything just a bit better. Teaming up with companions, typically two or more, to help out on single-player hunts alleviates a lot of the frustrations of playing entirely by yourself. Furthermore, playing with friends adds a lot to the experience and gives much more of a reason to continue playing even after every quest has been completed. Multiplayer runs seamlessly and smoothly, but it must be mentioned that it is only locally enabled on the 3DS. Despite the online capabilities of the handheld, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has no online play, so your friends will have to be in the same vicinity as you in order to play, similar to how the PSP titles have been. It’s rather a big letdown considering that the 3DS is more capable system than the PSP ever was in regards to online play.
Grinding is absolutely essential. Depending on your point of view, fighting the same monsters over and over again to get that one rare part you need can be a lot of fun or kind of a bore, but make no mistake: this game involves a large amount of grinding, especially when you get to the later tiers. Monster AI is good enough where all of that grinding doesn’t amount to simply going through the same routine each time, but it can still be very tiring. Again, this very much depends on a player’s feelings about grinding in games.
Though Ultimate is the best-looking Monster Hunter game to date, the level textures are still muddy and thoroughly unimpressive, so some players may be a bit harsh on it for its lack of graphical prowess. The monsters themselves look pretty good, as do the weapons and armors, but the landscapes are significantly lacking. On the other hand, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is not a game focused on being the next best-looking thing, so unless graphics are especially important to you, it’s not a huge setback.
As for the hardware, the game runs pretty well on the 3DS, but has some noticeable slowdown in certain sections. Underwater is particularly troublesome, as the framerate can dip fairly low when fighting monsters and while significant and annoying, it’s hardly game breaking. A similar thing can be said of the control scheme. The “claw” hand position that the player had to use while playing on the PSP iterations is gone, with the touch screen offering a small D-pad for camera control. While it works fairly well, playing for prolonged periods of time will lead to a lot of discomfort, especially if you have bigger hands. This is helped by the new target lock mode for the camera, allowing you to use the L-button to snap the camera towards the monster you’re doing battle with. But underwater fighting can still be a hassle. These complaints disappear with the Circle Pad Pro attachment, apparently, but that’s another $20 purchase for a $40 investment already.
With such a huge amount of varied and challenging gameplay, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is not only worth the entry free, but it’s worth buying a 3DS just for it. Even the vast majority of console games don’t offer nearly the same quantity of game that Monster Hunter often does, and rarely do games remain consistently fun. While it’s definitely not perfect—or for everyone—if you’re looking for a fun and challenging game for you to go at alone or spend some quality time with your friends, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is an excellent fit.
In a nutshell, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is worth your money.
It takes all of the previous games’ tight mechanics and improves upon them while adding new features that make for an even richer experience. Though the game definitely comes with annoyances and frustrations, it also comes with much more exciting and engaging gameplay than the vast majority of titles today. Few games offer the amount of quality and quantity that the latest iteration does, even in a handheld format.
For those unfamiliar with Capcom’s Monster Hunter series, the game is essentially about going on quests to fight large boss-like monsters and collect materials from them to make new weapons and armors to take on even larger and tougher creatures. There are no levels and all of the players’ stats are based on their equipment. Though the game does have characters and plenty of dialogue, there is hardly an attempt at a narrative being made with most of the “story” essentially serving as a tutorial, introducing the player to the basic mechanics of the gameplay. While the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate does teach the player most of the essentials, there are certainly some elements that you will just have to figure out for yourself as you hunt stronger creatures, making for a significant learning curve, and will most likely take a new hunter more than a few hours to get a handle on how the game really plays.
Once the player does get a handle on the system, the game becomes enormous fun, especially when you take into account the large variety of monsters, each requiring a different approach. For example, fighting a Diablos is a very different endeavor than fighting a Rathalos, each providing you an instance to exercise not only your character’s skills, but your mind.
The monsters are also fairly balanced, with a few exceptions providing a real challenge without being too overwhelming. You fight these monsters with one of the 14 weapon types in the game, and this is where the depth of the game becomes apparent. Each weapon type requires totally different and distinct play styles, offering largely different mechanics depending on which one you take from your personal armory. Because of this, the game can still feel fresh after a hundred hours of play, especially if you decide to switch to a new-to-you weapon type. Combined with the sheer variety of monsters to fight and equipment to craft, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate can easily be played for hundreds of hours.
Multiplayer is also a crucial component to the Monster Hunter series, and Ultimate is no exception. There is a single player that offers most of the same monsters as the multiplayer, and it is a good experience in itself, but friends make everything just a bit better. Teaming up with companions, typically two or more, to help out on single-player hunts alleviates a lot of the frustrations of playing entirely by yourself. Furthermore, playing with friends adds a lot to the experience and gives much more of a reason to continue playing even after every quest has been completed. Multiplayer runs seamlessly and smoothly, but it must be mentioned that it is only locally enabled on the 3DS. Despite the online capabilities of the handheld, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has no online play, so your friends will have to be in the same vicinity as you in order to play, similar to how the PSP titles have been. It’s rather a big letdown considering that the 3DS is more capable system than the PSP ever was in regards to online play.
Grinding is absolutely essential. Depending on your point of view, fighting the same monsters over and over again to get that one rare part you need can be a lot of fun or kind of a bore, but make no mistake: this game involves a large amount of grinding, especially when you get to the later tiers. Monster AI is good enough where all of that grinding doesn’t amount to simply going through the same routine each time, but it can still be very tiring. Again, this very much depends on a player’s feelings about grinding in games.
Though Ultimate is the best-looking Monster Hunter game to date, the level textures are still muddy and thoroughly unimpressive, so some players may be a bit harsh on it for its lack of graphical prowess. The monsters themselves look pretty good, as do the weapons and armors, but the landscapes are significantly lacking. On the other hand, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is not a game focused on being the next best-looking thing, so unless graphics are especially important to you, it’s not a huge setback.
As for the hardware, the game runs pretty well on the 3DS, but has some noticeable slowdown in certain sections. Underwater is particularly troublesome, as the framerate can dip fairly low when fighting monsters and while significant and annoying, it’s hardly game breaking. A similar thing can be said of the control scheme. The “claw” hand position that the player had to use while playing on the PSP iterations is gone, with the touch screen offering a small D-pad for camera control. While it works fairly well, playing for prolonged periods of time will lead to a lot of discomfort, especially if you have bigger hands. This is helped by the new target lock mode for the camera, allowing you to use the L-button to snap the camera towards the monster you’re doing battle with. But underwater fighting can still be a hassle. These complaints disappear with the Circle Pad Pro attachment, apparently, but that’s another $20 purchase for a $40 investment already.
With such a huge amount of varied and challenging gameplay, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is not only worth the entry free, but it’s worth buying a 3DS just for it. Even the vast majority of console games don’t offer nearly the same quantity of game that Monster Hunter often does, and rarely do games remain consistently fun. While it’s definitely not perfect—or for everyone—if you’re looking for a fun and challenging game for you to go at alone or spend some quality time with your friends, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is an excellent fit.